


Passing Over You Like a Satellite

by gunslingaaahhh



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-29
Updated: 2011-09-29
Packaged: 2017-10-24 23:35:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/269160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gunslingaaahhh/pseuds/gunslingaaahhh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kono finally allows herself to feel some emotion after everything thats happened.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Passing Over You Like a Satellite

Watching Fryer talk about IA's ruling on TV was one of the hardest things she'd ever done, but it was something she'd _had_ to do. Something she had to face, and hear, and witness, just like her family and friends. If they were going to endure it, then so was she.

As soon as the news switched to a different story, she reached for the remote and clicked the TV off. Tea finished, Kono made her way to the kitchen to deposit her mug in the sink; she didn't make it that far.

She'd only barely wept; she hadn't had time for much else. There'd been this feeling deep down, something dark and swollen and sharp. Part of her thought she'd felt something like it before, but she couldn't place where.

Here, though, standing in the middle of her small kitchen, slowly sinking to her knees, she figured it out. It was sharp, yes, and cold and like a punch to her delicate insides: it was grief, she was grieving.

As the tears came faster and harder, Kono gave up trying to reign it all in. Her body had done the best it could to keep things under control, especially when in the presence of her team... or what was once her team.

The sudden realization that Danny, Jenna, Chin, and Steve might no longer be her teammates was like a bolt of lighting, striking hard and mercilessly. She'd forced the thought away, but now, sobbing in the middle of her kitchen with her legs tucked beneath her, she couldn't keep it at bay. Her body wanted and needed the emotional release, and she couldn't deny herself that any longer.

Anger was seeping in now as well, and she pounded the fine bones of her fists into the linoleum floor over and over, grunting with frustration each time. Her vision was blurred with tears and slowly growing rage and as she came up on her knees, she punched at the floor harder, pain spreading through her hands and into her arms.

It was like she was caught in a bubble, a pocket of air outside time and reality – her problem and struggle was an entirely separate entity from what the rest of the team was doing. Her team, who hadn't been there when she went in for the ruling.

They'd all been there when Steve went to face the former governor, ready to stand by him; when it was her turn, when she was ready to answer for something that hadn't been her decision in the first place, they hadn't been there.

Rage blossomed anew in her chest and she growled, primal and deep in her throat. She didn't _want_ to be angry at them, these men who were family by blood and by choice. She didn't want to be, but she was.

Her rage slightly clouded her senses, making her oblivious to the door opening and closing and someone padding softly across the floor towards her. It wasn't until she'd raised a fist to punch the floor for the umpteenth time and was stopped, a large hand around her forearm, that she noticed.

Her first instinct was to struggle, to put whoever had dared to enter her home and see her like this on the floor, put them _down_... until she stopped and breathed.

And inhaled. A familiar scent, entirely masculine and familiar in the same way any of her male family members were.

Steve wrapped his free arm around her chest and pulled her back towards him, between his legs where he was kneeling behind her. The hand holding her forearm gave a squeeze, as if to say that it would be back if she kept up her current behavior.

The scent of Steve, mixed with earth and horse-flesh – a tiny bit of her smiled at that, at knowing that he'd just changed his shirt rather than go through the trouble of showering. He'd probably even changed at HQ. She caught a glimpse of the shirt out of the corner of her eye and her body relaxed; it was one of the lesser of the hideous shirts Chin owned.

Feeling the tension flow out of her, Steve relaxed himself, adjusting so he was sitting and she was facing him. She didn't speak, didn't raise a hand to wipe away the tears that were still on her face. She'd never had to hide from him and she didn't intend to now.

“I saw, on TV – we all did. I am so, _so_ sorry, Kono. We are going to fix this, I swear to you, no matter what it takes--” Steve began, eyes eager and earnest like he got when he was eager to get a job done. He reached for her hands and pulled them into his, his larger fingers practically making her more delicate hands disappear in his grasp.

“Don't make promises you might not be able to keep,” she practically spat, snatching one hand back to wipe viciously at her cheeks.

“I need you to trust me on this, ok? We're all pissed off and upset for you, but... Kono, please, if it weren't for me, you would never have gotten into this in the first place. It's my fault, and I have every intention of setting things right.”

Kono raised her eyes to stare at him, skepticism written plainly there. Steve looked awful, the guilt so heavy in his face that it was a miracle he wasn't doubled over. Part of her wanted to be vindictive, lay the blame on thick and tell him that yeah, you're my superior and I _trusted you._ She didn't, though, knowing full well that no guilt trip would ever be as bad as the one Steve sent himself on. He'd proven that as the case time and time again.

“That isn't fair,” she said instead, meeting his gaze with her chin lifted. “That's spinning it into something different than what happened. If we didn't take that money, as far as we knew, Chin would have _died._ You were doing what you thought was right. The person to blame for all of this is Jameson, and she's gone now. Don't carry her guilt.”

Steve dropped his head, taking his hands from hers and covering his face. “That doesn't make what's happening now any easier,” he said, voice muffled. “They're raking the coals over you. Do you know what Fryer said to Chin? Denning is cleaning the precinct out of any and all corruption. Chin's off the hook for now, but that doesn't mean the family isn't still tainted – they're making you an example to be learned from.”

“You don't think I know that?!” Kono shouted, waving her arms. She was vaguely aware that she'd been spending too much time with Danny, or maybe it wasn't enough, it was hard to be sure. “I know exactly what they're doing, which is why it sucks so bad that I can't _do_ anything about it.”

Scrubbing at his face, Steve leaned back until he was lying on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. He brought his knees up, at a right-angle to the floor and crossed his ankles, tucking his feet against his butt. He looked small and slightly vulnerable like that, and Kono caught a glimpse of just how much this was eating at him. Scooting along the floor, she lay next to him, their shoulders touching.

“I don't know what to do,” he said, voice soft.

“That's fine, neither do I,” Kono replied, watching the ceiling herself. “At least we're on the same page.”

“Lori – she's a new addition to the team, Denning, uh, recruited her – she's willing to dig around, make some calls. Maybe this Fryer guy is dirty, maybe he's got skeletons in his closet, make this case a moot point.”

Kono came up on an elbow and quirked an eyebrow at him. “Moot? Wow boss, Danny would be so proud.”

A ghost of a grin wandered across Steve's face, and he reached out to gently poke her in the ribs, muttering about nosy rookies and Word-of-the-Day calendars.

“Anyway, I just—I came here because I didn't want you to think we deserted you. I know we haven't all been together, that we can't really because you don't have the badge, but that doesn't mean we aren't thinking about you or trying to figure this out. You're—you're like a sister to me, to _us_ , you know? Like sometimes, I think that maybe... if things hadn't turned out the way they did with me and Mary, that we could've been like this.”

Emotion swelled in Kono's chest and she had to bite her lip to keep from crying out from the ache. Steve had a hard time with expressing emotion on his best days; having him speak so plainly to her, so openly was incredible. She curled into him then, wrapping her hands around his upper arm and nuzzling his shoulder.

“We're ohana, by blood and by choice. I know you guys wouldn't just leave me with this, but I also know that things are going to come up, cases and--”

“Hey, hey! You are first priority unless the governor says something else takes precedence, you hear me?” Steve said, turning to look her in the eye, all the conviction of this absolute truth clearly presented in his eyes. He waited for her to nod before continuing, “all rookie bullshit aside, you're a damn good cop. You come from good stock and even without all that, you're a great friend and we love you, all of us, even if we don't show it enough.”

“I know,” she whispered into the soft fabric of his shirt. “It's just hard, with everything.”

“We're gonna get through it. If we can get me out of jail and cleared and back on the job, we can make IA reopen your case and reinstate you.”

Steve's tone said he was brooking no arguments. He firmly believed in what he was saying, all SEAL determination and tenacity. There was no reasoning with him when he got like that, Kono knew that as well as Danny and Chin. Instead, she moved closer until her head was on his chest and his arm was wrapped around her back, firmly gripping her arm.

It wasn't comfortable by any stretch of the imagination; the linoleum was cold and unforgiving beneath their backs, but the camaraderie and the knowledge that this man, these _people_ were willing to go to bat for her so steadfastly was enough. Steve was scared, though he'd deny it until he was blue in the face. Being scared humanized him, though, and knowing that he was just as nervous as she was, but was still ready to stand up to all of IA for her – that all of them were – was enough to strengthen her resolve.

She would be ok.


End file.
